The Man Who Knew Infinity

Last night I attended "The Man Who Knew Infinity" a film based on the real life story of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan FRS, who was admitted to Trinity College at Cambridge University in 1914. A Film Trailer is available.

Dev Patel gives a believable portrayal of a mathematical genius not recognized, Devika Bhise as his devoted but neglected wife and Arundhati Nag as an Indian mother. These relatively unknown actors succeed in being noticed alongside the star power of the movie. Jeremy Irons as Professor Hardy made me think of this as Brideshead Revisited (Revisited), while Stephen Fry as Sir Francis Spring seemed to be reprising his Black-adder role and Kevin McNally as Major MacMahon looked like he was in Dad's Army. But Jeremy Northam steals the show as "Berty" (Bertrand Russell).

The India and Cambridge of the 1914 are lovingly reproduced, with perhaps a little too much sentimentality. India looks too clean, with too many elephants and not enough people. The Cambridge dons are a little too nice.

Filmed on location a Trinity College Cambridge, I was able to relate to the strictures of not walking on the grass (I was invited to by one of the fellows) and the gossip at high table (the food is not that bad).

This film manages to make mathematics interesting (just), but perhaps outstays its welcome and could do with 20 minutes being cut out. The film is based on the book "The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan" by Robert Kanigel (1991).

The Man Who Knew Infinity is on now in cinemas across Australia. My ticket was courtesy of  Nixco.


ps: If visiting Cambridge and not having an academic connection, you can stay in a college through University Rooms.

From the Backs at Cambridge

I don't think it is possible to take a bad photo of the Chapel of King's College Cambridge. Here is one I took yesterday, almost at random (I took a photo from almost the same spot about 20 years ago).

From a Cambridge College Room

Greetings from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University (UK), where I have been attending the 10th International Conference on Computer Science and  Education (ICCSE 2015). Most of the other delegates left yesterday and the quad is quiet. Fitzwilliam ("Ftiz") has modern buildings (with plumbing), but retains a modest scale and has quiet quad.

The auditorium used for the conference is only the hight of a two story building, but extends another two stories underground. Like the conference room at Hong Kong Open University (where I attended ICOFE2015), the auditorium also doubles as a basketball court.

Apart from the gardens, the best part of Fitz was the helpful Porter and the barman. The service is understated. Unlike a hotel, when I arrived I did not need to show my passport, provide a credit card deposit and fill in a form. I gave my name, signed in and d was handed a key. Unfortunately, the food was not so good (the baked beans of an English breakfast can be hard to face in the morning). However, the WiFi was excellent (apparently University of Cambridge had suffered a major network outage the day before, but it worked flawlessly during my stay).

You do not have to be alumni or attending a conference to get the university college experience. The service I booked through, Universityrooms.com, has rooms around the world. But keep in mind that during semester times there may be few rooms available, and during the breaks conferences make block bookings.


ps: There is a performance of Romeo and Juliette to attend at St. Johns. 

Computers for clean drinking water

Greetings from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University (UK), where the 10th International Conference on Computer Science and  Education (ICCSE 2015) just opened. The keynote is by Professor Clarence W. de Silva, British Columbia University, on "Sensing Issues in the Automated Monitoring of the Quality of Drinking Water". Professor de Silva pointed out the importance of clean drinking water and water for agriculture. He pointed out that the USA has to purchase water from Canada. Monitoring the quality of water manually is time-consuming and there can be long delays, resulting in the consumer receiving polluted water. Computers can be used to monitor the water in real time and issue warnings, including to smart phones.Interestingly the same system can be used to detect earthquakes, by changes in water quality as well as by incorporating accelerometers.

Later I will be speaking on "Merging Synchronous and Asynchronous Techniques for E-Learning".

What to See in Cambridge (UK) in July

Any suggestions as to what to do in Cambridge (UK) in July? I have visited twice before by bus and bicycle.

I will be at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, 21 to 26 July 2015, to present a paper at the 10th International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2015). Normally when speaking at a conference I also give a free public talk for government, professionals and academics, hosted by a local body. Anyone willing to host a talk please let me know. On a previous visit I talked at the Cambridge Computer Lab.

The paper for the conference (prepared with Hao Wu), is "Time-shifted Learning: Merging Synchronous and Asynchronous Techniques for E-Learning":

E-learning techniques are usually classified into two broad categories: synchronous and synchronous. The core question of this research is how to combine synchronous and asynchronous techniques in e-learning software, so it can have a stronger connection with constructivist education. The benefits and drawbacks of existing e-learning software is looked at broadly. Three popular e-learning packages used at the Australian National University are investigated: Adobe Connect (synchronous), Moodle and edX (asynchronous). The results of a brief survey of edX students is reported. Using the results of this work a team of students at the ANU Research School of Computer Science is now implementing enhanced asynchronous software to be plugged into Moodle and other asynchronous e-learning packages.

Worthington, T. & Wu, H. (2015, July). Time-shifted Learning: Merging Synchronous and Asynchronous Techniques for E-Learning. In Computer Science & Education (ICCSE), 20152 10th International Conference on (accepted paper). Preprint: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/13554

ps: Any suggestions on where to stop and speak on the way from Australia to Europe would also be welcome. For example, in 2008 I stopped off in Kuala Lumpur and filled in for a missing speaker at the 2008 World Congress of Information Technology.

Cambridge Phenomenon's Fifty Years of Innovation

Greetings from the UNSW Campbelltown Library. Seeking more content for my innovation course, I have tracked down the only copy of Kirk, Cotton and Gates (2012) in an Australian public library. In doing so I feel I am back on a journey started twenty years ago. In 1996 I spent several sessions in the ANU library, reading one of the few copies of the report "The Cambridge Phenomenon" (Segal Quince & Partners, 1985) in Australia. I very much had the sense I was holding a precious commodity to which I had limited access. I made extensive notes, appropriately enough on a Cambridge Z88 portable computer. These notes became Appendix A "The Cambridge Phenomenon - Summary of the Report" in Worthington (1999). I have had to drive three hours to read the sequel: I hope it is worth it.

The new the book is much glossier than the original.  The forward is by Bill Gates (There is a Microsoft Research Lab at Cambridge, adjacent to the new Cambridge University Computer Lab). The preface is by Charles Cotton, founder of Cambridge Phenomenon Limited (which appears to have been set up just to write this book) and mentions the Hauser Forum (in the West Cambridge Research and Development Park).

There is a two page diagram "Cambridge Ideas Change the World" which is also available on-line as a PDF document. This takes some liberties with history to place Cambridge at the center of developments in Genomics, Monoclonal Antibodies, Computing and Software. As an example, the Computing time line starts with Charles Babbage and his Difference Engine in the 1800s (was this done at Cambridge?), then Alan Turing before getting on to firmer ground with the 1946 EDSAC computer which was built at Cambridge. The last step in this is the formation of ARM at Cambridge in the 1990s (I visited there a few years after the company was formed and wish I had bought some shares).

The introduction of the book is on firmer ground starting with Tim Eiloart founding Cambridge Consultants in 1960. The authors estimate that 4,000 technology companies have been set up around Cambridge since the 1960s, with 1,400 in 2012 and 48,000 employees.

The chapter on the early days acknowledges Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, found by Horace Darwin in 1881 to make precision instruments, but it was not until the 1960 that conditions were right to make such companies more than a rarity.

The next chapter "Growing Pains: 1970 - 1979" covers Sinclair Radionics, which made the Sinclair Executive calculator, Also Arcorn Computers Ltd. The Mott Report (1969) lead to the Trinity Science Park. The Bolton Report (1971) resulted in government policies to encourage "small Firms".

The authors attribute Matthew Bullock at Barclays Bank in Cambridge with discovering a "triangle of activity between the river, Bridge Street and Jesus Lane" (Kirk, Cotton & Gates, 2012, p. 44). However, looking at a map of Cambridge, I am not sure where this triangle is. Bullock with Jack Lang of Topexpress (one of the companies in the triangle) then invited staff of the other companies to meet informally.

Kirk, Cotton & Gates (2012, p. 45) describe how some of these staff had been students and staff at the Cambridge University Computer Lab and meetings in the Eagle pub acted as a replacement for previous university common room discussions. Outcomes included changes to planning laws to allow R&D functions in commercial, rather than industrial, premises. Bullock identified Cambridge as an area for Barclays to invest in due to improved transport combined with the industry startups.

The next chapter "Putting the Phenomenon on the Map: 1960-1989" starts with a brief description of the first Cambridge phenomenon report (Segal Quince & Partners, 1985). Given that the later work has a name very similar to the first, this work gets remarkably little acknowledgement or analysis. I had assumed that the new report was by some of the same authors, or the same consulting company, or by people in some way associated with the first, but I could find no connection in the text. There appear to be just five paragraphs in this chapter of a book of 244 pages summarizing the previous study. The rest of the chapter describes the rise of various companies, most notably Acorn Computers making the BBC Microcomputer. The chapter ends by discussing the slow start for the Trinity Science Park.

Strangely the next chapter "Momentum: 1990-1999" has a large photo of the Cambridge Judge Business School, with no explanation of what this has to do with technology startup companies (p.66). I recall seeing this building in Trumpington Street on my way to talk to  Andy Hopper at the the much more modest Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL) in 1996. After reading the original Cambridge Phenomenon I had set out to see what it was all about in person.

At this point, about one quarter of the way through, I lost interest in the book and went for lunch at the UWS Cafe. After a lunch of fish and noodles I came back to the library to consider what I had read. The remainder of the book appeared to be the same detailed catalog of companies and funders as before. What was lacking was an analytical analysis of the reasons for this development which was in the original report.

This is not an updating of the original report, more catalog of what happened later. I suggest anyone interested in the how and why of tech startups should read the original report. You can then read Cotton, Charles and Kirk (2012) which gives a good summary of the second report.

The Canberra Start-up Business Boomerang

Is there anything from this book for my innovation course? Not really. The idea of an informal way for people from different startup firms to meet is useful. The concept of new companies starting in a small area in proximity to a university is not new, but worth restating.

Such an area is now forming in Canberra, on the western edge of the ANU campus and has been referred to as the "Canberra Innovation Precinct". However, the area is now expanding to cover much of the western side of Canberra's CBD. Given the shape of this precinct, it could be called the "Canberra Start-up Business Boomerang": from Marcus Clarke Street extending east to London Circuit, and from Barry Drive in the north to Gordon Street in the south. At the center of this, both geographically and strategically, is the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN). Also it should be noted that this is not far from where the Griffins' first plan for Canberra (1912), had marked as the location for the "Technology" building of the national university.

The Wig and Pen Bar, which was across the road from CBRIN, and serves as the equivalent of the Eagle pub in Cambridge, has moved slightly further away to the foyer of the ANU Music School.

Other Works on the Cambridge Phenomenon

A Google Scholar search finds more than one million references to the "Cambridge phenomenon". Miao and Hall (2014) look at the more ‘cultivated’ Chinese science parks, as a contrast to Cambridge.

Moog (2002) comments "Knowledge intensive new firms often result from high educated, academic founders or directly from academic institutions".

WESTHEAD (1988) points out that the phenomenon of closely clustered high tech firms may not be able to be replicated. may not be replicated. Benneworth and Groen (2010) describe how more formal university entrepreneurship programmes, which grew up partly as a response to the Cambridge Phenomenon, act as gateway to wider entrepreneurship system outside the university.

Yuehua. (2002) concludes that developed countries' experience of science parks is applicable to developing countries.

Garnsey, Lorenzoni and Ferriani (2007), detail the formation of ARM, as a spin-off of Acorn Computers. Ahmed (2013, pp. 122-139) has a useful chapter on "Entrepreneurs, Spinning Out, Making Money andLinking with Industry", with case studies on Shape Data Ltd, Acorn/ARM, Sintefex Audio, Bango,, RealVNC, Sophos plc, Jagex, blinkx, Camrivox,  Green Custard, The Raspberry Pi Foundation XenSource and Rapportive. Also there is a section on how the computer lab supported these developments. Unfortunately this 179 page e-book has very high resolution color images which makes it a 9.5mbuyte download (a version with smaller images would be more useful for students).


Curiously some of these works cite my own summary of the "Cambridge phenomenon" (Worthington, 1999), rather than, or in addition to, the original report. Livesey, Sullivan, Hughes, Valli, and Minshall (2008) in a Cambridge University Economics and Policy Working Paper quote me accusing the the Australian government of believing “if a
high technology/ science park is created, with suitably high-tech buildings, then high
technology firms will be attracted to move in from somewhere.”

References

Ahmed, H. (2013). Cambridge Computing: The First 75 Years. Retrieved from http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/downloads/books/CambridgeComputing_Ahmed.pdf

Benneworth, P., & Groen, A. (2010). " No longer the sparkling new idea": anchoring university entrepreneurship programmes in academic, entrepreneurial and regional policy networks. Retrieved from http://doc.utwente.nl/73396/1/Benneworth.pdf

Cotton, Charles & Kirk, Kate. (2012). Viewpoint: The Cambridge Phenomenon, five decades of success. BBC News UK. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17982595

Garnsey, E., Lorenzoni, G., & Ferriani, S. (2007)Speciation through Entrepreneurial Spin-off: The Acorn-ARM story. Retrieved from http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elizabeth_Garnsey/publication/222423713_Speciation_through_entrepreneurial_spin-off_The_Acorn-ARM_story/links/0deec52945dd7279bf000000.pdf

 

Kirk, Kate & Cotton, Charles & Gates, Bill, 1955- (2012). The Cambridge Phenomenon : 50 years of innovation and enterprise. Third Millenium, London

Livesey, F., O’Sullivan, E., Hughes, J., Valli, R., & Minshall, T. (2008). A pilot study on the emergence of university-level innovation policy in the UK. Centre for Economics and Policy Working Papers. Retrieved from http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/uploads/Research/CIG/UniversityInnovationStrategy_FinalReport_RELEASE_140308.pdf

Miao, J. T., & Hall, P. (2014). Optical illusion? The growth and development of the Optics Valley of China. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 32(5), 863-879. Retrieved from http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/98479/1/98479.pdf

Moog, P. (2002). Human capital and its influence on entrepreneurial success. Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung, 157-180. Retrieved from http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/3395/ssoar-hsr-2002-no_4__no_102-moog-human_capital_and_its_influence.pdf?sequence=1

Segal Quince & Partners (1985). The Cambridge phenomenon : the growth of high technology industry in a university town. Segal Quince & Partners, Cambridge

Trani, E. P., & Holsworth, R. D. (2010). The indispensable university: Higher education, economic development, and the knowledge economy. R&L Education.

WESTHEAD, D. P. (1988). SWP 30/88 NEW MANUFACTURING FIRMS AND NEW FIRM FOUNDERS IN WALES, 1979-1985. Retrieved from https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/576/2/SWP3088.pdf

Worthington, Tom (1999). Net traveller : exploring the networked nation (Ed. 1.0). Australian Computer Society, Dickson, A.C.T Retrieved from http://tomw.net.au/nt/

Yuehua, Z. (2002). A developing economy oriented model for science park management. Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1989&context=theses

UK University Innovation Policy

The paper "A pilot study on the emergence of university-level innovation policy in the UK" from the Cambridge University Center for Economics and Policy (200*), attracted my attention as I am quoted in it:

The Australian government, among others, has been accused of believing that “if a high technology/ science park is created, with suitably high-tech buildings, then high technology firms will be attracted to move in from somewhere.” ...

Worthington, T. (1997), Canberra: Cambridge or Thebes?, Australian Computer Society

Augmented Reality Research at Microsoft Research Cambridge

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Dr Shahram Izadi, from the Computer Mediated Living group at Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK is describing research on augmented reality.

After showing some early work on experimental 3D sensors, Dr Izadi concentrated on use of the Microsoft Kinect device. He pointed out that this hardware is not a real 3d sensor and it needs software enhancement to extract 3d data from the camera. He provided a fascinating live demonstration of the process (at one stage I looked up and found that myself and my laptop had been scanned).

The important point of the demonstration is that a relatively low cost sensor can be made to do far more with sophisticated software. It will be interesting to see what non-game applications may be developed.

New research is using two digital camera to provide depth data, which would have advantages over the current Kinect device. This could work outdoors and work in a small hand-held device (such as a mobile phone, tablet, or a pair of glasses).

At the end of the talk Dr Izadi mentioned collaboration with researchers in other fields. But it struck me that the examples given were all very scientific and technical (such as design of 3D objects and enhancing surgery). It struck me that input from performers and artists could be fruitful. As an example, Dr Izadi is a very entertaining presenter, with good use of gestures and movement, but he then has to become very static in order to operate the presentation on his laptop. Providing a gesture interface for Microsoft Powerpoint, using the Kinect (or a web camera), would seem an interesting area for research, as well as a potentially popular commercial product. In its simplest form as standard set of gestures, which the presenter has to learn could be used. A more sophisticated approach would have the software learn the presenter's natural gestures.

As well as the familiar Research Labs in the USA, UK, India and China, Microsoft has also established Advanced Technology Labs (ATL) at Cairo, Europe and Israel. The ATLs are focused more on joint work with local organizations and product development, whereas the research labs have carried out long term research on their own. Some years ago I visited Microsoft Research Cambridge and found it a little insular.

Experiencing computing in magical ways.
Dr Shahram Izadi (Computer Mediated Living group at Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK)
COMPUTER SCIENCE SEMINAR
Information and Human-Centred Computing

DATE: 2012-07-03
TIME: 16:30:00 - 17:30:00
LOCATION: RSISE Seminar Room, ground floor, building 115, cnr. North and Daley Roads, ANU
CONTACT: hongdong.li@anu.edu.au

ABSTRACT:
Dr Shahram Izadi will present some of his recent work - see his Bio below for a richer description.
BIO:
Dr Shahram Izadi is a research scientist within the Computer Mediated Living group at Microsoft Research Cambridge. He co-leads the Interactive 3D Technologies (i3D) sub-group, and holds a visiting professorship in the Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics group at University College London (UCL). He describes his work as: aMashing together exotic sensing and display hardware with signal processing, vision and graphics algorithms to create new interactive systems, which enable users to experiences computing in magical waysa. Some of his most notable projects and publications to date include: KinectFusion; Mouse 2.0; SecondLight; and ThinSight. Shahram has been at Microsoft Research since 2005 and prior to that spent time at Xerox PARC. He received a TR35 award in 2009 and was nominated one of the Microsoft Next in 2012. He lives in Cambridge, UK, with his wife and daughter.

The indispensable university

"The Indispensable University: Higher Education, Economic Development, and the Knowledge Economy" by Eugene P. Trani, Robert D. Holsworth (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010) discusses the role of the unviersity in the twenty-first century economy. I happened across this book because it references my summary of The Cambridge Phenomenon (on pages 22, 153 and 265).

Product Description

The Indispensable University describes the innovative transformation of institutions of higher education (HEIs) across the world, in response to the emerging realities of the twenty-first century global knowledge-based economy, as well as describes how HEIs are defining many of today's economic realities on a regional level. HEIs continue to drive economic development through their traditional roles of purchaser, employer, real estate developer, workforce developer and community developer. But these roles now must be executed more strategically and collaboratively. Also, the twenty-first century economy offers universities unique opportunities to generate the intellectual and financial capital that drives emerging knowledge-based industries. Case studies are drawn from: urban America; rural America; Europe; the Middle East; and emerging countries. Some of the topics covered include the following: the role of university presidents as change leaders; the relationship between higher education institutions and the political leadership of cities, states, and nations; successful models of partnerships between higher education and the private sector; and future challenges and opportunities facing the modern university.

About the Author

As the fourth president of Virginia Commonwealth University and the president and chair of the board of directors of the VCU Health System, Eugene P. Trani positioned the university as a key driver in regional and statewide economic development. Currently president emeritus and university distinguished professor at VCU, Trani has authored, co-authored, annotated, and edited eight books and published more than one hundred articles and op-eds, including two major books on foreign policy. Robert D. Holsworth was the founding director of both the Center for Public Policy and the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has authored or co-authored five books and numerous articles on American politics and public policy. His observations on national and Virginia politics have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and numerous other media. He runs the non-partisan political Web site VirginiaTomorrow.com and is a principal in two research and planning groups.

---

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (March 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1607090791
• ISBN-13: 978-1607090793

Memorial Service for Professor John Bennett

A memorial service for Australian computer pioneer Professor John Bennett AO will be held at the University of Sydney, 24 February 2011. Please register your attendance by 18 February 2011.

The Australian Computer Society (ACS) reported the death of its founder Professor John Bennett AO, on 9 December 2010. John helped to build one of the first computers in the world, EDSAC, at Cambridge University (UK) with Maurice Wilkes, before working on computers in Australia.

During my time as President of ACS I bumped into John a few times. On one occasion I was in a queue of people going in to the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. I noticed John in the queue (he was hard to miss) he made a comment about how after World War II some of his colleagues stayed in radar, some went into computing (as he did) and others into nuclear power.

In 1996 I visited the Cambridge University Computer Lab and handed the head of the lab, Professor Robin Milner, a copy of 'Computing in Australia - The development of a profession'. He looked at the cover of the book said "Ah! young John Bennett!". I had no idea what Professor Milner was talking about, until I looked at the book cover, saw John had edited it and then realised that he had studied in this lab 50 years ago.

Some information I collected on John Bennett for the ACS:

• First ACS President 1966.
• JRPIT special edition "A Tribute to John Benett" 2001.
• "John Makepeace Bennett – An Inspiration", by Jenny Edwards, JRPIT, 2001
• "John Bennett", Profiles in ICT series, Information Age
• Bennett, John M. (John Makepeace) (1921-), National Library opf Australia "Trove" entry.
• EDSAC 99 - Fiftieth anniversary of the EDSAC Computer, by John M. Bennett, 1999 (includes photo of J.M.Bennett working on EDSAC I, in 1947)
• Bennett J.M., Broomham R., Murton P.M., Pearcey T., Rutledge R.W. (eds.) (1994) 'Computing in Australia - The development of a profession' Hale & Iremonger in association with the Australian Computer Society Inc, 1994
• 124 publications attributed to John Benett

Better solar cells with Buddhist singing bowls

Niraj Lal, University of Cambridge, will talk on "Making solar cells better with Buddhist singing bowls" at the Australian National University in Canberra, 3pm, 10 February 2011. The title of the talk refers to the bowl shaped nano-structures used to make the solar cells more efficient:

"Making solar cells better with Buddhist singing bowls "

Niraj Lal (University of Cambridge)

SOLAR SEMINAR SERIES

DATE: 2011-02-10
TIME: 15:00:00 - 16:00:00
LOCATION: Ian Ross Seminar Room
CONTACT: daniel.macdonald@anu.edu.au

ABSTRACT:
The ability to structure materials on the nanoscale has opened new approaches to light trapping for solar cells. Particularly promising is the use of plasmonic resonances of metal nanoparticles and nanostructured surfaces to enhance absorption in thin-film PV materials. The work presented in this talk demonstrates a new class of plasmonic photovoltaic enhancement: that of localized-plasmon enhanced absorption within nanovoid structures. The talk introduces plasmonic photonics, describes some of the photovoltaic work occurring in the UK, and reports first cells fabricated within nanosized Buddhist singing bowls that yield a four-fold enhancement in overall power conversion efficiency. Nanovoids also show a spatial distribution of light intensity within the void that varies for different wavelengths, suggesting a first step towards plasmonic enhancement for third-generation solar cells.

BIO:
Niraj Lal graduated as the Angus Nicholson Honours Scholar from the ANU in 2007 with a BSc (Hons) in physics under the supervision of Professor Andrew Blakers at the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems. He is currently studying as a Gates Cambridge Scholar for a PhD from the NanoPhotonics Group of the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK. Before starting his PhD, Nij worked in science communication - travelling across regional and remote Western Australia with Scitech delivering shows about slime, bubbles and hands-on science to primary-school kids.

Vale John Bennett

The Australian Computer Society (ACS) reported the death of its founder Professor John Bennett AO, on 9 December 2010. John helped to build one of the first computers in the world, EDSAC, at Cambridge University (UK) with Maurice Wilkes before working on computers in Australia.

During my time as President of ACS I bumped into John a few times. On one occasion I was in a queue of people going in to the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. I noticed John in the queue (he was hard to miss) he made a comment about how after World War II some of his colleagues stayed in radar, some went into computing (as he did) and others into nuclear power.

In 1996 I visited the Cambridge University Computer Lab and handed the head of the lab, Professor Robin Milner, a copy of 'Computing in Australia - The development of a profession'. He looked at the cover of the book said "Ah! young John Bennett!". I had no idea what Professor Milner was talking about, until I looked at the book cover, saw John had edited it and then realised that he had studied in this lab 50 years ago.

Some information I collected on John Bennett for the ACS media release:

• First ACS President 1966.
• JRPIT special edition "A Tribute to John Benett" 2001.
• "John Makepeace Bennett – An Inspiration", by Jenny Edwards, JRPIT, 2001
• "John Bennett", Profiles in ICT series, Information Age
• Bennett, John M. (John Makepeace) (1921-), National Library opf Australia "Trove" entry.
• EDSAC 99 - Fiftieth anniversary of the EDSAC Computer, by John M. Bennett, 1999 (includes photo of J.M.Bennett working on EDSAC I, in 1947)
• Bennett J.M., Broomham R., Murton P.M., Pearcey T., Rutledge R.W. (eds.) (1994) 'Computing in Australia - The development of a profession' Hale & Iremonger in association with the Australian Computer Society Inc, 1994
• 124 other publications attributed to John Benett

Personal Energy Meter

Simon Hay has proposed "A Global Personal Energy Meter" at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. The idea is that your mobile phone would track where you are and what you are doing, calculating how much energy you are using, so you can make decisions to use less (perhaps receiving some incentives to do so). This appears to be a logical extension of the tracking devices which the Cambridge Computer Lab has been experimenting with for decades (I wore one of the devices when I visited Andy Hopper in Cambridge in 1996).

As well as the formal paper there is a sixteen slide show.This is an idea worth exploring. There are obvious problems with privacy, as there were with the previous computer labs tracking devices. However, as anyone who has read the draft energy audit standards knows, the state of the art in energy measurement for carbon auditing is not very advanced. Therefore the information needed from a personal tracking device need not be very precise. Also gaps in measurements can be tolerated far more than with a security tracking badge.

Abstract. Every day each of us consumes a significant amount of energy,
both directly through transportation, heating and use of appliances,
and indirectly from our needs for the production of food, manufacture
of goods and provision of services. I envisage a personal energy meter
which can record and apportion an individual’s energy usage in order
to provide baseline information and incentives for reducing the environmental
impact of our lives. Contextual information will be crucial for
apportioning the use and energy costs of shared resources. In order to
obtain this it will be necessary to develop low cost, low infrastructure
location systems that can be deployed on a truly global scale. ...

From: A Global Personal Energy Meter, Simon Hay, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 2009.

Cambridge Phenomenon

In looking for material on e-learning at Cambridge, I stumbled across a reference to something I wrote in 1996 about "The Cambridge Phenomenon" (Segal, Quince and Partners, 1985). This was a study of why high technology start-up companies had been so successful around Cambridge University (UK). In 1996 I visited Cambridge University and discussed start ups with Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer. He mentioned the report, which I found in the ANU Library, wrote a summary of and then used in a presentation to the ACS: "Canberra: Cambridge or Thebes?". Because the original report was not available online, Ross Anderson and others at Cambridge University had referecned this summary. But what I have now noticed is that the talk itself was reverenced in "A pilot study on the emergence of university-level innovation policy in the UK" by Finbarr Livesey, Eoin O’Sullivan, Jonathan Hughes, Rob Valli and Tim Minshall (Working Paper 2008/1, Centre for Economics and Policy, Engineering Department, University of Cambridge, March 2008).

Cambridge University Online Courses

After suggesting to my colleagues at the Australian National University School of Computer Science (SoCS) we use an e-Oxbridge educational model, I thought I should check to see how Oxford andr Cambridge apply e-learning. A quick web search found the Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education, which offers online courses specialising in adult and non-traditional learners. The Institute clims: "unparalleled level of online support and direction from experienced and enthusiastic tutors", whichfits with the Oxbridge model of education. However, these are short general interest and proessional devlopment courses, not full degree programs.

An example is "The global climate challenge: policy technology and the future" (COV007), an 11 week course costing £165.00 and offering 10 credits at level 4 of the Framework for higher education qualifications. The award requires participation in online discussions, a Personal Statement of Learning (e-Portfolio) and assignments. Six such courses would be required for an undergraduate "Certificate of Continuing Education" (Postgraduate courses are at FHEQ Level 7).